


Expiration

by VerdantMoth



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Confessions, Fluff and Angst, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 11:25:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13293855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerdantMoth/pseuds/VerdantMoth
Summary: “People don’t have expiration dates, Derek.”





	Expiration

“People don’t have expiration dates, Derek.” Stiles looks at him like he, of all people, should know this, smacking the keys away. He can feel the complicated dance his eyebrows are working through, but he can’t stop it. Because he does, in some way, know this.

 

“People don’t necessarily have them, but relationships do. It can’t be helped.”

 

Stiles looks at him like he knows where Derek’s thoughts are. The ones in New Zealand, where Erika and Boyd are exploring and learning and finding themselves inside of a relationship not built around constant, looming death. Others, in London where Jackson and Ethan are building their own pack of broken and lost boys, and just across in France where Isaac and Allison and Scott and Kira are making their strange relationship work. In South America where Cora and Peter and Malia are.... not quite building a family but still trying to put the broken pieces of themselves together. Mostly, he thinks of Lydia and Parrish and whatever it is they’re putting together at MIT’s campus.

 

“The young ones stayed, Derek. They’re here and you’re supposed to be watching out for them.” Stiles wrings his hands together, then tugs at the sleeves of his jacket.

 

Derek tilts his head back and forth. “For now. But Corey and Mason want to visit Boyd and Erika. And Liam and Theo...”  
Stiles nods. “Yeah. Yeah, no one is touching that with a ten foot pole. But visiting and traveling and making connections. Those things aren’t permanent. Mason and Corey have full time jobs here. And Liam is taking his time, but a masters doesn’t happen in a week. He’s gotta come back sometime to finish.”

 

Derek shrugs. “15 years is a long time to build connections.” Stiles snorts.

 

“Do you really want Jackson at holidays?”

 

No. Yes. Kind of. “Boyd and Erika are always traveling. Scott and them spend a third of every year in France.”

 

Stiles glares. “They’re visiting. Traveling. Vacationing. It’s normal, Derek. People do it all the time. Normal people.”

 

Derek sighs. He can’t understand why Stiles isn’t getting it. “Everyone leaves eventually stiles. Life happens. Babies get born and they want them somewhere safe or they fall in love with a local who doesn’t want to leave. Sometimes they get jobs at prestigious institutes and they have to live there. Sometimes they can’t handle all the death an area holds for them. It’s not a judgment or complaint. It’s just a reason. Valid, but still.”

 

Stiles shakes his head slow and sad. “I haven’t left. And you came back, keep coming back.”

 

Derek scoffs. “You stay for your dad. I’m here because there’s nowhere else to be.”

 

Stiles doesn’t contradict him. They’re quiet a moment. Stiles takes a cautious step forward. “They’re all coming back, Der. Holidays are close and they promised a big party at your house. They’ll be here. Even Peter and Jackson.”

 

He thinks he knows that, but he can’t risk disappointment anymore. There are dusty remains where his heart once sat and they settled eventually, but he can’t risk stirring them again. He’ll suffocate in the storm.

 

He thrust the key at Stiles. “The house is the pack house. Not mine. Keys are for you. I have to go, Stiles. I can’t stay.”

 

Stiles face crumbles, and then rage crawls across it. Several other emotions come to life and flicker out and Derek just watches, waiting for Stiles to walk away the way everyone else does. The way they always have. Kate and Laura and Brayden and Jackson and Cora and Chris. He knows some of those were blessings, but it doesn’t less the pain. Stiles looks like he’s going to cry and it scares Derek because if Stiles cries it’ll break him and his resolve.

 

He doesn’t. Instead he gets a fiercely determined look on his face and squares his shoulders. He steps right into Derek’s personal space, bracketing the graying beard with slender hands. He presses his forehead against Derek’s. “Fine. Fine okay. Listen Sourwolf. You can go. Anywhere and everywhere for however long. But if you go,” Stiles removes one of his hands and curls it around the one Derek holds the keys in, locking their fingers around the cool metal. “If you leave, you’re taking me with you.”


End file.
